Traditionally, handiras (or wedding blankets, as they’re often known) are woven by Berber women in the mountains of northern Morocco in preparation for a wedding. It can take weeks of work to complete, during which time the female family members will school the bride-to-be on the intricacies of marriage. Our DIY version is a tribute to these beautiful blankets.
1 Begin by mapping out your design. Lay the blanket out flat on the floor, and place the trims onto it, experimenting with different designs. The meterage we’ve supplied above will be enough to add four stripes of each trim – simply add or subtract to suit.
2 Pin your first stripe down and remove the rest, keeping a note of which order they went in (we placed ours in the following order: entwined tracks, chunky chenille, suedette and sequin; then added a zig-zag of snaked Lurex in between). Use as many pins as necessary – it’s important to hold the trim in place as you work as the blanket can pull and distort as you sew.